Entered as second-class matter May 22, 1919, at the postoffice at Carson City, Nevada, under the Act of August 24, 1912. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized Teachers throughout the country take honest pride in the fact that they belong to a worthy profession. They hold to ideals and standards in keeping with the high type of their calling. Shame on the men and women who would break down this source of their inspiration by fore- ing upon them the claim that there is no such thing as a teaching pro- fession in the United States and that the teachers' work is a most menial kind of service! Nothing but discontent and disloyalty can result from the promotion of such doctrine. There is a teaching pro- fession and its ideals have inspired hope on the part of teachers and gained the confidence of the public. The fact that teachers believe that they belong to a worthy profession and that the public appreciates its high standards are the strongest forces at the present time in securing increased salaries for teachers in the present crisis in education. DISTRICT INSTITUTES Did you receive any pedagogical shocks during the Institute discussions? If you did, you are alive professionally. Did you agree with all that was presented by the leaders? If you did, you need to diagnose your case or get some one to do it for you. There was so much fresh "live-wire" material brought to the teachers in the several Institutes that any one with educational convictions should have challenged some of the positions taken. Because these are wrong? Not at all! But because these declarations strike at very radically different methods and plans now commonly followed by teachers. If teachers are intelligently conscientious in the plans they use, there is bound to be deep questioning when a ringing challenge is sent against the use of plans and methods which they have been using. The teacher who has not already gone far into the professional "dry-rot" stage will continue to think over the challenge made against her methods; think out the question until she is sure of the best methods for the children under her care. (This means the male species of teacher equally as much.) If you have been greatly disturbed in mind, you should be jubilant, for you are greatly alive. Your pupils have a teacher who is still capable of growth. But you can settle your disturbance only by intelligent testing of the teaching faith that is within you. You will come out with a strong faith-changed a great deal as to ways and means! Undoubtedly so. But you will think things over; not blindly follow new phrasing of educational philosophy and practice. As you look back over the worth-while meetings, select the features that challenged your methods most. What do you think of Phonetics and Reading? What about correcting papers? What does punishment mean? Are you a believer in the Project Method, and how much have you used it? There are many questions teachers should be thinking over as a result of the keenly interesting discussions at the District Institutes. READING VS. PHONETICS If the ringing declaration of the chief Institute speakers in our recent District Institute that recognition and pronunciation of words is not Reading shall cause Nevada teachers more fully to distinguish between tools to help children to recognize words in the printed form. and real Reading, and that word-recognition is a means to an end and not the end itself, then these District Institutes will have justified the expense involved, even though no other results should be obtained. Children must be taught to read, and this does not mean a story approach or a phonetic approach; it means that the child must become master of the thought in his reading lesson, whether in the primer or in the fourth reader. It means that thought-getting from the printed pages is obtained by the child, no matter which of a dozen different plans to secure word mastery a child may have followed under the teacher's directions. The teachers of Nevada have a choice between a story approach to word mastery, gradually making use of phonics, and the phonetic approach which has been in use in the past four years. There is no question but that phonetics will furnish the child a tool to independent word recognition. But after a child has learned to recognize words, the whole question of what use he shall make of this power in thoughtgetting from the printed pages is still to be worked out. He must be taught, by methods that fit his child nature and development, how to use this valuable power of recognizing and pronouncing the printed words. If he really learns to read, and not merely to call words, his progress in history, arithmetic, geography, and other subjects, as well as literature, is assured. As each teacher again takes up the work in her school she should thoroughly analyze her methods of teaching Reading and test rigidly the results obtained in her school to see whether she is getting "wordcalling" or "thought-getting." TEACHERS' SALARIES AND SCHOOL FINANCES The interesting facts given in another article in this issue of the Bulletin by Deputy Superintendent M. J. Burr have been gathered from the records for the Fourth Supervision District to aid in the study of teachers' salaries in this State. Accurate information is needed to prepare the way for a fair and sound solution of this question. Further data from the other Supervisional Districts of the State will be presented in later issues. Several striking features appear at once in a preliminary study of these figures. One of the first is the marked increase in salaries for the year 1918-1919 over that of previous years; and there is a decided slackening in the percentage of increase for the current year as compared with that of last year. We must bear in mind the influence of the World-War situation into which our country was drawn, the tremendous falling off in the supply of teachers, and the rapidly mounting scale of wages paid the general class of laborers; these factors were working somewhat more slowly for increased salaries for teachers. The first operation of the new school apportionment law became effective in January, 1918, with increased apportionments for schools, rural schools especially, so that schools that had been receiving as low as $500 a year were assured a minimum of $777.50, or an increase of more than 50%. In this way during the year 1918-1919 there came to hand greatly increased funds to meet the critical need for increased salaries. The more moderate increase in salaries on the average for the current year (1919-1920) reflects the fact that many districts last year came close to the limits of increase made possible by the new apportionment plan. (For the present year a moderately increased provision becomes effective, $25 more per teacher and $1 more per child.) There are, however, several unexhausted sources of increase in school support which can be used in meeting the requirements for the school budgets for the coming school year, July 1, 1920, to June 30, 1921: (1) Counties can levy (in most cases) a higher county school-tax rate. The minimum required of counties is $450 per census teacher and $6 per census child. Many counties have already gone beyond this minimum as a necessity. Others can do more in this line. (2) By levying a special district tax of at least 15 cents the smaller. districts can secure a special relief apportionment from the State School Reserve Fund, or from the County General Fund, in addition to the funds raised by such special tax. (3) Special district tax levies may be increased in many cases. A careful study of the facts and figures will undoubtedly call for further legislation such as is being urged in all the States. But in the meantime there is much that can be done to better present conditions under existing laws. By a wise use of the budget law and close attention to the fixing of school-tax levies in March, Nevada can move forward yet farther in meeting the crisis in school finances that faces every State and every community. We need a minimum salary law and funds provided to meet it. While we prepare for such new steps, let us work out the full possibilities of our present provisions. THE BUDGET LAW AND TEACHERS' SALARIES The teachers of the State should be fully informed in regard to the enactment of the last Legislature to provide the salaries of teachers. Page 54, section 154, provides that: "The salaries of teachers in the several school districts of the State, as determined in the contract between teachers and the Board of School Trustees in the several districts, shall be a prior claim upon the school district fund of such districts." The purpose of such a law is evident upon the first reading. At this time when the salaries of teachers have been slow to respond to the greatly increased cost of living and have lagged behind the increase in wages generally in this county, a careful compliance with this provision should be observed by those concerned. There may be a few districts in the State not yet on a full cash basis as is planned under the budget law, which became effective for schools February 1, 1919; a careful investigation on the part of the teachers who are forced to wait for their salaries should result in doing away with such waiting. If the law protecting teachers' salaries has been overlooked, it should be brought to the attention of the Clerk of the School Board, in order that the teacher's salary may be made a prior claim as provided by law. Teachers should give intelligent aid in formulating the annual budget for the coming year, especially the teachers in the rural districts where they have no principal to assist the School Board in such matters. Teachers who tactfully offer their friendly services to the Clerk of the School Board in the preparation of the estimate of the amount of money needed to maintain school properly for the coming year will be rendering a practical and substantial aid to the solution of school finances. In order to be able to render such assistance to their board, teachers should have the following information well in mind: A one-teacher school (census teacher) is a school having from 5 to 39, inclusive, census children. A two-teacher school may have as few as 40 census children, provided the average attendance for the last year was 20 or more, otherwise 45 to 74 census children will give two census teachers. (Teachers should be familiar with the details as given under sections 151 to 154 of the Nevada School Law, 1919.) The semiannual apportionment of state and county money provides a minimum of $375 for each census teacher and $5.50 for each census child. On page 41, par. 4(b), provision is made for a special relief apportionment to any district that lacks necessary funds to maintain the school properly after receiving the regular apportionment. The |